1http://www.ling.cam.ac.uk/francis/FN_inton_prepub.pdf. and division.

Theories on syllable formation

2. The structure and functions of syllables in English Speech can be broken into minimal pronounceable units into which sounds show a tendency to cluster or group. These smallest phonetic groups arc generally given the name of syllables. eing the smallest pronounceable units! syllables form morphemes! words and phrases. "ach of these units is characteri#ed by a certain syllabic structure. Thus a meaningful language unit phonetically may be considered from the point of view of syllable formation and syllable division. The syllable is a complicated phenomenon and like a phoneme it can be studied on four levels $ articulatory! acoustic! auditory and functional. The comple%ity of the phenomenon gave rise to many theories. &e could start with the so$called e%piratory 'chest pulse or pressure( theory by ).*. Stetson. This theory is based on the assumption that e%piration in speech is a pulsating process and each syllable should correspond to a single e%piration. So the number of syllables in an utterance is determined by the number of e%pirations made in the production of the utterance. This theory was strongly critici#ed by )ussian and foreign linguists. +.,. Torsuyev! for e%ample! wrote that in a phrase a number of words and conse-uently a number of syllables can be pronounced with a single e%piration. This fact makes the validity of the theory doubtful. .nother theory of syllable put forward by /. 0espersen is generally called the sonority theory. .ccording to /. 0espersen! each sound is characteri#ed by a certain degree of sonority which is understood us acoustic property of a sound that determines its perceptibility. .ccording to this sound property a ranking of speech sounds could be established: 1the least sonorous2 voiceless plosives voiced fricatives voiced plosives voiced fricatives sonorants close vowels

open vowels 1the most sonorous2. 3n the word plant for e%ample we may use the following wave of sonority: 4pla:nt5. .ccording to 6... 6asssilyev the most serious drawback of this theory is that it fails to e%plain the actual mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. defined. esides! the concept of sonority is not very clearly

Further e%perimental work aimed to description of the syllable resulted in lot of other theories. *owever the -uestion of articulatory mechanism of syllable in a still an open -uestion in phonetics. &e might suppose that this mechanism is similar in all languages and could be regarded as phonetic universal. 3n )ussian linguistics there has been adopted the theory of syllable by 76 Shcherba. 3t is called the theory of muscular tension. 3n most languages there is the syllabic phoneme in the centre of the syllable which is usually a vowel phoneme or! in some languages! a sonorant. The phonemes preceding or following the syllabic peak are called marginal. The tense of articulation increases within the range of prevocalic consonants and then decreases within the range of postvocalic consonants. )ussian linguist and psychologist N.3. 8hinkin has suggested the so$called loudness theory which seems to combine both production and perception levels. The e%periments carried out by N.3. 8hinkin showed that the arc of loudness of perception level is formed due to variations of the volume pharyngeal passage which is modified by contractions of its walls. The narrowing of the passage and the increase in muscular tension which results from it reinforce the actual loudness of a vowel thus forming the peak of the syllabic. So the syllable is the arc 9f loudness which correlates with the arc of articulatory effort on the speed production level since variations in loudness are due to the work of all speech mechanisms. 3t is perfectly obvious that no phonetician has succeeded so far in giving an ade-uate e%planation of what the syllable is. The difficulties seem to arise from the various possibilities of approach to the unit. There e%ist two points of view: :. S9me linguists consider the syllable to be a purely articulatory unit which lacks any functional value. This point of view is defended on the ground that the boundaries of syllables do not always coincide with those of morphemes. ;. *owever the ma<ority of linguists treat the syllable as the smallest pronounceable unit which can reveal some linguistic function. Trying to define the syllable from articulatory point of view we may talk about universals. &hen we mean the functional aspect of the syllable it should be defined with the reference to the structure of one particular language. The definition of the syllable from the functional point of view tends to single

out the following features of the syllable: a( a syllable is a chain of phonemes of varying length= b( a syllable is constructed on the basis of contrast of its constituents 'which is usually of vowel $ consonant type(= c( the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel! the presence of consonants is optional= there are no languages in which vowels are not used as syllable nuclei! however! there are languages in which this function is performed by consonants= d( the distribution of phonemes in the syllabic structure follows by the rules which are specific enough for a particular language. 2. The structure and functions of syllables in "nglish Syllable formation in "nglish is based on the phonological opposition vowel $ consonant. 6owels are usually syllabic while consonants are not with the e%ceptions of 4l5! 4m5! 4n5! which become syllabic in a final position preceded by a noise consonant: bottle 4b>tl5! bottom 4b>tm5! button 4b/?tn5 and 4r5 'in those accents which pronounce 4r5( perhaps 4pr@ps5. The structure of "nglish syllables can be summari#ed as follows: A Bany syllables have one or more consonants preceding the nucleus. These make up the syllable onset: me! so, plow.

Bany syllables have one or more consonants! following the nucleus.

They make up the syllable coda. They are traditionally known as closed syllables: cat! jump. The combination of nucleus and coda has a special significance! making up the rhyming property of a syllable.

The "nglish language has developed the closed type of syllable as the fundamental one while in )ussian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable

formation. The other aspect of this component is syllable division. The problem of syllable division in case of intervocalic consonants and their clusters! like in such words as city, extra, standing and others. 7et us consider the first word 4Csit.i5. There e%ist two possibilities: a( the point of syllable division is after the intervocalic consonant: b( the point of syllable division is inside the consonant. 3n both cases the first syllable remains closed because the shot vowel should remains check The result of instrumentally analyses show! that the point of syllable division in such words is inside the intervocalic consonant. ",D indicates the point of division after the consonant. The second case. There are two syllables in the word extra but where should the boundary between them fallE :( 4e $ kstrF5. 3t is unlike that people would opt for a division between 4e5 and 4kstrF5 because there are no syllables in "nglish which begin with consonant se-uence 4kstr5. ;( Similarly! a division between 4ekstr5 and 4F5 would be unnatural. G( 4ek $ strF5! 4eks $ trF5! 4ekst $ rF5 are possible. ,eople usually prefer either of the first two options here! but there no obvious way of deciding between them. 3n some cases we may take into account the morphemic structure of words. For e%ample! standing consists of two syllables= on phonetic grounds 4st@n $ diH(. on grammatical grounds 4st@nd $ iH5. Now we shall consider two functions of the syllable. The first is constitutive function. 3t lies in its ability to be a part of a word itself. The syllables form language units of greater magnitude that is words! morphemes! and utterances. 3t this respect two things should be emphasi#ed. First! the syllable is the unit within which the relations between distinctive features of phonemes and their acoustic correlates are revealed. Second! within a syllable 'or syllables( prosodic characteristics of speech are reali#ed! which form the stress pattern of a word and the intonation structure of an utterance. 3n sum! the syllable is a specific minimal structure of both segmental and suprasegmental features.

The other function is distinctive one. 3n this respect the syllable is characteri#ed by its ability to differentiate words and word$forms. /ne minimal pare has been found in "nglish to illustrate the word distinctive function in the syllabic: nitrate night-rate. There analogical distinction between word combinations can be illustrated by many more e%amples: an aim - a name; an ice house - a nice house, etc. Sometimes the difference in syllable division may be the basic ground for differentiation in such pairs as I saw her rise.- I saw her eyes; I saw the meat I saw them eat.